I visited Uganda in November and December of 1993, and loved it. I loved the people, the landscapes, and the challenge and adventure of getting around. I promised myself I’d return one day and finally, in January, 2017 I made it. It’s often risky returning to a place where you had such a wonderful experience. It might not be what it was, and a sub-par experience the second time can take the shine off memories from the first. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed. I had a fantastic five week trip through the country, touching every corner by the time I was finished (it’s a small country admittedly).

The immigration officer at Entebbe airport welcomed me warmly while checking my visa and asked if it this my first time to Uganda. “No,” I said, “I was here in 1993.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled. “You will notice things have changed a great deal,” she promised.

I was to discover that it had, and it hadn’t. There were more private vehicles on the roads (and more roads in general), and more commercial and retail activity in the larger towns. Kampala, the largest city, is no longer a large town with crumbling buildings but has become a large city with chronic traffic gridlock and endless suburbs and slums. Everyone has mobile phones.

But in most ways there was little different. Small towns and villages are still fairly primitive and quiet. The electricity supply is woefully irregular, and streets, buildings, and infrastructure are all in a terrible state of disrepair. The food is still bad. But the people are still bright, friendly and relaxed, and the scenery is still beautiful. It’s easier to move around from town to town, but there’s still a whiff of adventure in the air if you want it.

I spent the first week or so in and around Jinja, in the south of the country just east of Kampala. It’s a perfect introduction to the country, quiet and green and peaceful with plenty of options for eating and sleeping and lovely countryside for walking. The old, colonial part of town is filled with fantastic villas, most abandoned and crumbling, covered with vines and overgrown. There are flowers and pretty trees everywhere, and the River Nile sits at the edge of town, just where it flows into Lake Victoria.

I settled in at the Bellevue Hotel. Everyone was friendly. Martina and Edna worked there, spending their day doing laundry, sweeping and socializing. Both were chatty and very curious about me and what I was doing in their country.

I ate breakfast everyday at a restaurant called “I luv dat chicken!”, a name that would likely have you brought up on racist charges at home but seemed fine in Uganda. Omelette, bread and Lipton tea was my usual fare, supplemented by a banana or two.

I walked a long way out of town through the leafy streets of the colonial section to the “source of Nile”. It’s a spot alongside the riverbank where a small plaque remembers the British explorer John Speke who in 1858 “discovered” Lake Victoria and what he believed to be the source of the Nile (which is in fact elsewhere, in Burundi).

I had a long talk with a policeman named Eddie. He asked me, when I approached his checkpoint at a road leading out of town, whether I wanted to buy him a cold drink. I said I did, so he quickly abandoned his post for 20 minutes while we drank and chatted in the shade. He wanted to know whether I was married and what sort of mobile phone I had, and went out of his way to assure me I would be perfectly safe in Jinja. He invited me to come back anytime and visit him at his checkpoint.

I eventually left Jinja and made my way north-east towards the city of Mbale and the highland area of the Kapchorwa district, known for coffee cultivation, lovely green rolling hills and a pleasant higher altitude temperature. So far so good.

Next to the small highland towns of Sipi and Kapchorwa, and a visit to a small coffee farm and a late night in a local bar.

Stay tuned!